In recent years, medications have increasingly been packaged in aerosol form for dispensing as inhalents. They have been particularly effective in dispensing inhalents in a finely divided spray which is inhaled directly and drawn into the lungs for direct action on the lung tissues. Many medications requiring prompt administration at the onset of a condition, such as asthma, can best be administered in this fashion, because the medication acts directly on the affected tissues. Further, many medications which are required to be fast acting can best be administered in this fashion because the rate of absorption from the lungs is much faster than when the drug is administered orally, and in many instances is as rapid as when the drug is injected.
The medications are usually packaged in containers with a valve and nozzle arrangement through which the spray of medication is dispensed by pressing on a valve actuator on the top or bottom of the container to open the valve, and pressure within the container, either by virtue of a propellant within the container or by air pressure developed by the actuation of the valve actuator, causes dispensing of the material in a finely divided spray.
In order to direct the medication into the oral cavity for inhalation, a funnel-like mouthpiece of some type is required. This must be positioned over the nozzle through which the medication is dispensed from the dispenser, and to project outwardly from the container. Because the containers must be able to be held either upright or upside down, depending upon their design, to operate properly, the dispensing nozzle is usually directed at right angles to the longitudinal axis of the container. The dispensers and the mouthpieces are generally made of plastic. A protective cover is usually required to keep the inside of the mouthpiece and the nozzle clean.
A disadvantage common to all of the currently available dispensers is that the patient must normally remove the protective cover from the mouthpiece, then remove the mouthpiece from a position in which it covers the top of the container, and replace it on the container in the operative position. Dispensers have been developed which have mouthpieces pivoted to the container, but these are all rather cumbersome, and usually require several manipulative actions to bring the mouthpiece from the storage position in which the axis of the mouthpiece is aligned with the axis of the container, to the dispensing position in which the axis of the mouthpiece is substantially perpendicular to the axis of the container. In the case of a patient undergoing an asthmatic attack, or an attack of angina, or a patient who is acutely ill or may have tremors, this action may be a difficult procedure to carry out.
It would be a distinct advance in the art to have a container construction incorporating a mouthpiece in which the mouthpiece could be quickly and easily snapped from the conventional storage position where it protects the nozzle and its interior, into the dispensing position, and when the use of the dispenser is ended, can be just as easily and quickly snapped back into the storage position. It would be a further advantage if this could be accomplished without the necessity of removing a part from the dispenser.